Hebrews chapter 6. This evening we'll be looking
at verses 4 through verse 9. The title of the message this
evening is, The Believer and the Apostate. The Believer and
the Apostate. As we've seen before, last time
we were studying in this passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul,
that his desire was this, that the saints, that these Hebrew
believers in Christ, that his desire was that they should grow
in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse
1, this is why he said, Therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrines of Christ, Let us go on unto perfection, maturity. He's talking about growing in
the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
the desire of every pastor. This is the desire of every man
of God called to preach the gospel. As that those he preaches to
would be instructed in the things of God and God would apply that
to their heart so that they might grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says of these believers in
the previous chapter, he says, I've got things to say to you,
but you are dull of hearing. You're dull of hearing. When
you should be expected to be teachers, you're not teachers,
but yet you need someone to come back and teach you the first
principles again. His rebuke was that you're not
growing. Something's wrong with this.
Remember I said last week that the characteristic of something
that's living is that it's growing. That it's growing. And if it's
not growing, most likely it's dead. It's dead. And so he's
concerned. He's concerned about these. These
Hebrew people were not ignorant of the Scriptures. They were
taught from their youth the Law and the Prophets, but yet these
things that he was telling them about the priesthood and about
Melchizedek and these types and shadows, he said, you should
have already seen this. You knew these Scriptures and
you should have seen that they were just pictures of Christ. The apostle is disturbed in their
lack of understanding that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of
all Scripture. These Hebrews failed to see Christ
in all the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ in many
places taught us this very plainly. When he was teaching in John
chapter 5 and verse 39, the Lord told those Pharisees, He said,
Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they that testify of Me. The New Testament
Scriptures are not just the means of salvation and the Old Testament
the means or rule of life. Isn't that how men view the Scriptures
today? They view the New Testament as,
well, that's a message of salvation. But the Old Testament is the
message of how we're to conduct ourselves. The law is by how
we should live. That's the view and mind of this
wicked generation. to think that someone is saved
by grace and then continues by works. This generation supposes to be
saved by Christ, faith in Christ, and to finish salvation by looking
back at the Old Testament law. The apostle is teaching contrary
to this. He's saying, no, Christ is all
in the Scriptures. Here's something for you that's
very instructive. Every time you read the Scriptures,
look for Christ. Everywhere you go in the Scriptures,
look for Christ. Because He is the fulfillment
of all the Scriptures. All the Scriptures. He is all
our salvation. If anyone professes faith in
Christ, to believe in Christ, and then to somehow finish their
work by obedience to the law, then that person, I tell you,
is deceived. Deceived. Friends, salvation
is either completely of grace or completely of works. It cannot
be a mixture of both. And that's what the Apostle was
rebuking them for. They were saying, well, Christ
has saved us, but I'm going to go back to the Old Testament
now and start looking at how to live by the law. No! That's
not growing. Matter of fact, that's dying.
That's regressing. The Apostle Paul tells us in
Romans chapter 11, He said, 11 verse 5, "...even
so, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. And if it be
of works, then it is no more of grace, otherwise work is no
more work. Therefore, see that the law And
the prophets, the Old Testament was never purposed to save. The law was never purposed to
save anyone. But only to reveal Christ, who
is the end of the law, for righteousness. To who? To everyone that believeth. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Therefore, the
Apostle encourages us to grow in this understanding, in this
grace and knowledge. Believers in Christ are to look
to Jesus Christ only and always for all our life and salvation. For He is the fulfillment of
all the Scriptures. Now, you who have believed, you
who have received the blessings of God's grace, God's faith and
mercy in Christ, let me ask you this. Are you so full of the
graces of God that you have no need to grow? Are you so full
of love that you don't need to grow in love? Are you so full
of faith that you don't need to grow in faith? Well, this
is a ridiculous question to ask a believer in Christ, because
we know, we know that we have so much to learn, that we have
not learned at all. We know that we can grow in the
graces of the Holy Spirit. We know that we can grow in our
knowledge of Christ. And I'll tell you, the more I
know about Him, the more I love Him. The more I know about Him, the
more I love Him. Didn't the Apostle say that his
desire was that I may know Him? Now, if there was anybody who
knew the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle did. Met Him face to
face. Learned His Gospel from the King
of Glory. And yet Paul said, that I may
know Him, that I might be found, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but His righteousness. Isn't that your
desire, a believer in Christ, is that you may grow? It is. It is the desire of the believer
to grow. And how shall we grow in these
graces except that we grow in knowledge of Christ and His perfect
work? I tell you, I would like to be
a hundred percent confident in faith and have a hundred percent
of assurance all the days of my life. I would love that. I
would. I would love that. How do we
have assurance? By looking to the perfect, complete
work of Christ. Isn't this a wonderful good Scripture?
You are complete in Him. That's a wonderful passage of
Scripture. I want to know more about that.
I want to know more. I want to understand that and
I want to believe that more. I can grow in faith and the graces
of God. This is what He's encouraging
believers to do, is to grow in these things. And so the apostle, he says,
let's leave the ABCs, and he said, let's build on this. He's
not telling us to leave the doctrine of Christ, but rather to gather
what we understand, what we know of the grace of God, and what
we are to do is to build on that foundation. And last week I did go over these.
I won't go over them again. The repentance from dead works,
faith toward God, the doctrine of baptism, laying on of hands,
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These are things
that believers know and that we should grow in. And look what
he says in verse 3. He says, This we will do, if
God permit. This we will do. Those who are
recipients of God's grace are given both life and faith, and
we will grow. It is not only that we desire
to grow, because we do. We desire to grow. But how is it that we grow? We
grow because God wills us to grow. That's why. True believers
will grow and they will bring forth fruit, not in their own
strength. I'm not going to grow in faith
by gritting my teeth and sheer determination. That's not how
you grow. Matter of fact, that's how we
see that we don't have as much faith as we think we do. Believers desire to grow, but
we know this, that our growth is in the hands of God. It is
in the hands of God. And we have this comfort. This
is the comfort then that God is willing that we grow. God is willing that we grow. The Lord shows us this in Matthew
chapter 13. Flip over there. Matthew chapter
13. In verse 23, the Lord having explained the parable
of the seed, the sower and the seed, He gives the definition or the
answer to those that fell on good ground, the seed that fell
on the good ground. He says, but he that received
seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word, and
understandeth it." Believer, is that not so with
you? Have you not received the word of the gospel of God's grace
in that how you were dead in trespasses and sins? You and
I were sinners by nature, sinners by choice. All we could do is
sin, and all we wanted to do was sin. We had no desire for
the things of God. We did not seek after God. We were dead in sins. And yet
by the grace of God, no thanks to anything we have done, the
Spirit of God began to stir. He began to plow up the ground
of our hearts, just like a farmer would take a hoe or a plow and
he would dig into the dirt Grind up the hard ground so that it
would be moist, so that we'd be ready to receive the seed.
And that's what the Spirit of God did for us. He plowed up
the ground of our hard hearts. He made us to know ourselves. To know that God is holy and
cannot just pass over our sins. He made us to see His justice
must be satisfied. And then the seed was thrown.
The Gospel was thrown. The Spirit of God took the message
of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, satisfied
God's judgment. God was so satisfied with Him,
He raised Him from the dead, seated Him on the throne in heaven
for you. Now that seed, when it hit that
good ground, that ground readily received the seed, didn't it?
And my heart readily received the gospel. How readily did our hearts were
not made willing in the day of His power? At once, I was not
willing. The Spirit of God began in conviction
in my heart, and the soil of the heart was made ready for
the seed. I'll tell you, there's not going
to be anyone saved unless the Spirit of God convinces them
of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And then the gospel makes sense.
Only those who need mercy receive a message of mercy. I needed
mercy. And then the Spirit of the Lord
sent the message of mercy, and truly my heart was ready for
it. We received it as readily as
the good ground received the seed. And all believers, all
who believe, this is the will of God. Look
at this. He says, you that heard the Word and understand it, which
also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundred, some sixty,
and some thirty." Do you not see that then the Spirit of God
comes in and produces the fruit of the Spirit? Love. I had no
love for God until the Spirit gave me love for God. And now
I have love for God. Faith. I have faith. I have faith in Jesus Christ.
gentleness, meekness, temperance, all of these spiritual fruits,
and then they grow. They produce fruit. And Jesus said some will produce
a hundred, some sixty, some thirty, but all will produce fruit. Do
you see? That all will grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
That's what the Apostle is saying. He's saying if you're not growing,
it's because you're not alive. because all who believe will
grow and will bear evidence of these graces. Think of the thief on the cross.
How he only had just a small amount of time, but what fruit
did he bear on that cross? What evidence? Did you see his
faith? He was being nailed to a cross. He was dying and there was a
man nailed next to him. And He believed that man dying
on the cross next to Him was God. Now that's fruit. That's evidence, isn't it? I'll
tell you, if He lived longer, I'm sure He would have grown
more. And so it is with all believers. As we live in this world, we
also grow. But let me ask you this. If you
have believed for years, is it not unbecoming if you're still
found a babe in Christ. It's very unbecoming, isn't it?
To be under the sound of the gospel for many years and yet
have no desire to grow. Something's wrong with that.
Something's wrong. Truly our growth in the grace
is both our responsibility and dependent upon God's grace. Some
see this as a tension, but to believers, it's not a tension.
It's your responsibility to grow. Avail yourself to all the means
that God has chosen. Prayer, study, witness, especially
the preaching of the gospel. These are the means by which
we grow. Now, avail yourself to them.
Yet we know this, that truly God yields the growth. Isn't that right? And I also
want you to see this. I don't have this in there, but
you want to grow? Expect trouble. Don't think that you're going
to grow without it. This is how God uses trouble.
He uses that as the means by which we grow in grace and faith
and every fruit of the Spirit. It's our responsibility to avail
ourselves, but it is truly God's power that causes us to grow.
This is not a tension. For we must press toward the
mark of the prize of the high calling of God, in Jesus Christ. As a runner presses toward the
finish line, even so, we strive by faith to be found in the blood
and righteousness of Christ. And yet all the while we are
striving, we are leaning. We're leaning on Christ. And I tell you, the more we grow
in grace, isn't it true the more we lean on Christ? You take someone who's a believer.
I remember my foolishness as a young believer. I thought I
could set the world on fire. I thought it was me. I thought
I could really get out there. The more I grow in grace, the
more I realize I must lean on Him harder. I must rest all my
weight and depend on Him for all my strength and faith. And
as you grow, you'll be like John the Baptist. I must decrease. He must increase. He must increase. We trust we will grow by His
will and strength, and we will grow in His time. Get this, you
will grow in his time, not yours. What is the saying that we like?
I want patience and I want it now. No, avail yourself to grow, but realize
that it is his strength that causes us to grow. Now, let's
get on to this. this matter in verse 4. The apostle
now, after encouraging them to grow, he must deal with this
matter of apostasy. In verse 4, he says, 4. It is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted
of the heavenly gift, who were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come, if they should fall away to renew them again
unto repentance, seeing they crucify unto themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." The warning of
apostasy, if someone is not growing, it's because they're dead and
ready to fall away. Ready to fall away. The Apostle
says, if these who once were enlightened tasted the heavenly
gift, if they fall away, It is impossible to renew them again
to repentance. What a dangerous, horrible thing. Yet we know this to be true. After having revealed these stagnant professors of
faith, and encouraging them to grow in the doctrine of Christ,
he now warns those who feel no need to grow in the things of
God, he warns them of apostasy. If you feel like you don't need
to grow, if you don't think that there's any of the graces of
God that you need to grow, or you don't need any more knowledge,
you've had enough, you're in danger. You're in danger of being
one of these apostates. It's what he's telling you. Let me be clear about growing
in grace. I don't mean progressive holiness.
There's no such thing. Did you get that? There is no
such thing as progressive holiness. You are either holy or you're
not. You're either righteous or you're not. You can't become
progressively more holy. This idea of progressive sanctification
that men believe today is nothing more than works religion. Nothing
more than works religion. What they're doing is what the
apostles warning. He's saying don't Don't think
that the New Testament is all about salvation by grace and
then you refer to the Old Testament. That's what they're doing. They're
going back to the Old Testament, not looking for Christ, but looking
for how to live. He said, oh no, that's dangerous. Believers are holy because there's
no such thing as less or more holy. We are holy as our Savior
because He has imputed and imparted to us His righteousness. But
all believers who are made holy by Christ will grow like a child
will grow in his body. I got five fingers. Now when
I was little, my parents said that they were much smaller.
My hands were much smaller. But yet I did not grow any new
fingers. My fingers were all there to
begin with. They just got bigger. So it is
with the graces of God. But all who do not grow, the
apostle warns of this condition of apostasy. Now notice that
these words are very similar to our experience. As believers
in Christ, we were enlightened by the Holy Spirit. We've tasted
of the heavenly gift. We've tasted of the Word of God
and the powers of the world to come. We can say that about any
believer in Christ. But what the apostle here is
saying, if you'll notice that each one of these is past tense.
They were once enlightened. They once tasted. Believers in Christ, listen to
me, your faith is always present, isn't it? Your faith in Christ,
you never are trusting in what happened 20 years ago. You are trusting in Christ now. You are believing on Christ now.
There's the difference. The difference between the apostate
is he's going to look back and you're going to look to Christ
now. You believe now. These people were once enlightened.
They once heard the gospel. They weren't ignorant of it,
but then they turned away. What happens to someone who's
not growing? He's withering. You see, the
Lord in that parable of the seed and the sower, He was talking
about apostates. Remember the one on stony ground
and the one on thorny ground? The seed fell among thorns and
the seeds fell among the stony ground. And when they sprang
up, when the sun came down, they withered. When troubles and trials
come their way, they by and by reject the gospel. They go away. The difference between apostates
and believers is that believers never go away from Christ. See, they mimic you. Apostates are nothing more than
pretenders. They mimic the things that you've
experienced. They mimic, but they really have
not got it. They turn away from it. They've
tasted the heavenly gift. They've been made partakers of
the Holy Ghost. What does that mean? It doesn't
mean that they've been given life by the Holy Ghost. They
may have been used by the Spirit of God. There are many true believers
who are fearful of apostasy. Matter of fact, the only ones
fearful of apostasy are believers. Isn't that so? Apostates never
fear apostasy. Only believers fear apostasy. Now, it may appear that these
people might have seemed to be saved and then lost, but we know
that's not true. Apostates are not saved, people
that were later lost. Our Lord Jesus tells us that.
He said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me. And He said, No man is able to
pluck them out of My hand. For My Father which gave them
Me is greater than all. So we know that there's no such
thing as being saved and lost. Apostates are those who mimic
true believers, but are never given the grace of faith, of
true faith. These men hear the same gospel
of God's grace, they profess to believe on Christ, they seem
to be changed, and they may have great stories
to tell. Man, I've heard some doozies. My brother, I remember him telling me his
conversion, his so-called conversion. He said that he was in a parking
lot at a hotel and he had seen this light. And he felt guilty. He felt like he needed to be
saved. For a while, you know, your family
members, you have hope. You want to hope. You want to
say, I hope he's not trusting that. I hope he'll hear the gospel
and believe and throw away that foolishness. Later on, he just by and by went
away. Now, he heard the truth. He professed
to believe the truth of the gospel of God's grace. But then where
did he go? So they have great stories, great
experiences. But be warned, those who hear
the gospel of God's grace, profess to believe it, and then reject
it, and revert back to works, these are apostates. In other words, they're not ignorant
of God's salvation by the grace of God, and they seem for a while
to rejoice in it. Unknown to them and unknown to
us, they're just tares among the wheat, goats among the sheep. What then is the evidence of
the apostate? How do you know an apostate?
The apostle John tells us in 1 John 2, 19, he said, They went
out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of
us, they would have no doubt continued with us. But that they
might... But they went out that they might
be made manifest, they were not of us." How do you know an apostate?
When he stays and hears the gospel, professes it, and then goes out
from us. That's how you know. That's how
you know. True believers have no desire
to leave Christ. Isn't that right? I like that. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. He that believeth shall not make
haste. In other words, we ain't going
nowhere. You remember those disciples
in John chapter 6, the Lord was preaching that salvation was
by the grace of God. He said, no man can come to Me
except the Father which has sent Me to draw him. And that offended
His disciples. His disciples were offended and
they went away, never to return again. That is apostasy. His disciples were just as confused They didn't understand what He
was saying at that time. And Jesus asked them, will you
go away also? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? We ain't going nowhere. You have
the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure Thou
art the Christ, the Son of God. See, they didn't go anywhere.
What's the difference? Apostates left, believers stay. And those who go away, friends,
they go away because they were never truly believers to begin
with. And in verse 7, the apostle gives
the illustration, gives a picture here. He said, For the earth
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it. and bringeth forth
herbs, meat for them, by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing
from God. But that which beareth thorns
is rejected, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." Do
you not see that? I think that's a very simple
picture. See the rain falling from heaven. It waters the earth. and it brings
whatever's in the earth, it brings it out. You got that? If you've got herbs planted in
the ground, when it rains, you're going to get what? Herbs. If there are thorns in the ground,
when it rains, you're going to get what? Thorns. This is the same parable the
Lord did in the seed of the sower, except the rain is the gospel. When the gospel is preached,
it goes on to all men. It rains on all of you this evening. This gospel of God's grace and
mercy. I say, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Trust in Christ. Look to Him. Stop looking to your work. Stop
looking to yourself. Look to Christ. Believe on Him. The rain has come. And now then,
when this rain falls, guess what it's going to do? It's going
to come down into your heart and whatever's in your heart
is going to come out. Whether herbs unto blessing or
thorns unto cursing. This gospel is going to bring
out whatever's in you. When God plants His Spirit in
us, this gospel brings out blessings. But when this gospel is preached
to the apostate, eventually thorns will show. Why? Because that's what they are. They have no hope in Christ. Friends, God has an elect people. And He will call them by this
gospel. And they will believe. And you
know what? They will continue to believe.
Why? Because they're stronger? No.
Because God is their Savior. But those that are not chosen
of God, they may hear and they may pretend for a while, but
they will not endure. Why? Because God has not showed
them mercy. And in the end, they will receive
what they were ordained to receive. Cursing. Burning. Their vessels fit for
destruction. Paul says in that last verse,
in verse 9, he said, but we are persuaded better things of you. I'm persuaded better things of
you who have nowhere else to go but Christ. I'm persuaded
of better things of you. I've seen better things. Evidence
of grace. And you know it's true if you
continue unto the end. Believer, do you have an desire
anywhere else to go? That's evidence of true faith. And you won't go anywhere else.
You'll grow in that faith, in that knowledge, but you won't
ever grow outside of that. You won't ever seek for anything
else but Christ. May God bless you who are believers
and cause you to grow. And be comforted. Be comforted,
resting in Christ. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.